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Looking to finish the work that he started.

Disgraced former U.S. Rep. Mel Reynolds said he will ask voters to focus on his congressional experience rather than his state and federal criminal record as he announced his bid today for the seat held by Jesse Jackson Jr., who has resigned.

At a downtown hotel news conference, Reynolds acknowledged having made “mistakes” in the past. For his campaign, he will try to assume the mantle of an incumbent while also seeking redemption from voters. Red and white campaign signs urged voters to “re-elect” Reynolds “so he can finish the work” while another stark red sign with white letters said simply: “Redemption.”

Reynolds held the 2nd Congressional District seat from 1993 until October 1995, when a Cook County jury convicted him of several sex-related charges, including having sex with an underage volunteer campaign worker. While serving time in state prison, Reynolds also was convicted on federal financial and campaign fraud charges. President Bill Clinton commuted Reynolds' sentence to time served in 2001.

Good point. Securities fraud can lead to being barred from the industry for life, why not the same here?

Filing personal baruptcy can mean being barred from the securities industry for life as well. The principle behind such a restriction is that if you are crappy with your own finances, then surely you will be crappy with other people's finances, and probably likely to be intentionallly fraudulent with their finances as you dip into the company till to try and uphold your private financial life.

By the same token, I always felt that if Bill Clinton couldn't keep his wedding vows that he made to his own wife, then why should we trust him to uphold his vow to defend the United States Constitution?

"He will ask voters to focus on his congressional experience rather than his state and federal criminal record"
Maybe he should ask voters to focus on something off in the distance, because by my count, he has more experience in prison than in Congress.
Sex crimes and financial crimes- he does like to cover all the bases. How long before they find out he also sold top-secret information to foriegn powers?